What is the main purpose of a political platform?

Let's address the latter point first:

Party platforms are nonbinding documents; candidates and elected officials are in no way required to adhere to the specific policy recommendations and guidelines spelled out in the platforms. And, as one might expect, they often don't.

But in doing so, a politician can risk alienation from the party establishment and become more vulnerable to attacks from opponents (as was learned all too well by President George H.W. Bush, who defied his party's platform and broke his own campaign promise when he famously supported a tax hike in 1990, a move that contributed to his failed re-election bid).

In one study, reported by Vox,  Democratic and Republican lawmakers voted in line with their party's platforms more than 80 percent of the time (based on an analysis of platforms and votes from1980 and 2004).

The platforms represent each party's political identity and direction, the product of intense intra-party debate and soul searching.  Every iteration is a bit different from the last, reflective of current presidential candidates and the evolving makeup of the political establishment.

Platforms also offer clues into a party's longer term direction, writes Marquette University political scientist Julia Azari,  in a recent article in FiveThirtyEight. When a party platform changes policy positions or focuses new attention on a major issue, those shifts are likely to last for a long time, she notes.

The 2016 Democratic Platform, for instance, is noticeably more left-leaning on certain economic issues -- like raising the minimum wage to $15 and expanding social security -- than it was in 2012, a concession to the left-leaning former candidate Bernie Sanders.

Likewise, the Republican Platform has moved further to the right on certain social issues, like same-sex marriage and immigration. Interestingly, this year's Republican platform also shifts away from the party's long-time support for free-trade policies, instead adopting the protectionist positions advocated by Donald Trump.

The Netherlands is a parliamentary democracy with various political parties. Under the Political Parties (Grants) Act, national political parties can receive government grants to subsidise their activities.

In a parliamentary democracy, citizens elect their representatives. In the Netherlands this happens every 4 years. The candidates are members of political parties. Citizens vote for  the party of their choice and, in this way, influence government policy.

Role of political parties

A political party brings together people with the same political ideas. By taking part in an election, parties hope to get as many of their members as possible into a representative body, like parliament or a municipal council. At the same time they try to hold as many posts as possible in the government, or in the municipal or provincial executive.

Political parties have various functions. One is promoting the interests of their voters. They also draw up party programmes. Citizens can join political parties, enabling them to help shape the party programme.

Founding a political party

Under the terms of the Elections Act, anyone in the Netherlands can found a political party, even minors and foreign nationals. Political parties wishing to participate in an election can contact the Electoral Council for more information.

Grants for political parties

National political parties that have at least one seat in the House of Representatives or Senate are eligible for grants. These can be used for research, training or the recruitment of new members. With the help of these grants parties can reinforce their position as part of a parliamentary democracy.

Political parties are key players in American politics. But the Constitution does not mention political parties. In fact, many of the founders, including George Washington, distrusted permanent political parties, fearing that they would become too powerful. The first two political factions to appear were the Federalists, who supported ratification of the Constitution, and the Anti-Federalists, who opposed ratification. These factions disappeared once the Constitution was ratified. Yet, early in Washington's first administration as president, two new factions formed: the Federalists, who supported Alexander Hamilton and a group that gathered around Thomas Jefferson, called the Democratic Republicans. They were the first real parties.

Third parties have never received high percentages of votes at election time, but they still serve important functions in the American political system. They give citizens who vote for them a forum for dissent. They also give those promoting reform a chance to air their ideas. For example, many of the ideas of the Progressives eventually were adopted by the major parties.

American political parties differ from those in many countries, where parties are often organized to promote a particular political or economic ideology such as socialism, communism, fascism, or capitalism. Others may represent a given economic interest such as labor or farmers. Some have been organized to promote a religious group or interest.

In contrast, American political parties are generally not ideological. Instead, they are made up of a loose collaboration of interests that want to win the next election. While the parties might differ on the issues, they seek to appeal to the widest possible spectrum of the electorate.

Platforms and Planks

American political parties are organized on a national, state, and local basis. Every four years, the parties hold a national convention to nominate a presidential and vice presidential candidate. They also meet to approve a party platform of issues and positions upon which the candidates will run. A party platform is a set of principles, goals, and strategies designed to address pressing political issues. Each party's platform is broken down into "planks," or declarations that speak to each specific issue.

Party platforms and their planks are very important to the electoral process: They give the candidates a clear political position with which they can campaign. They give voters a sense of what the candidates believe in, the issues they think are important, and how—if elected—they will address them.

For Discussion

1. Why did George Washington fear political parties?

2. What role do third parties play in the American political system?

3. What is a party platform?

4. What is a platform plank?

5. Why are party platforms important?

("Parties, Platforms, and Planks" was adapted from The Challenge of Governance © Constitutional Rights Foundation)

A C T I V I T Y

Building a Party Platform

After reading about the origins and functions of political parties, students create a party platform to address political issues that are likely to arise during a national election.

1. Divide the class into 10 small groups. Assign each group one issue from the list below.

• terrorism
• diplomacy and military force
• promoting democracy abroad (nation building)

• jobs and the economy
• diversity and equality
• civil liberties & national security
• health care
• education
• environment
• energy

2. Tell students to:

• Define the issue they have been assigned.
• Explain why it is an important campaign issue.
• Develop a position, or "plank," on how the issue should be addressed..

Optional: If time permits, have each group research its issue before proceeding to step 2.

3. Have each group present their findings to the whole class. After each presentation, vote as a class whether to (1) adopt, (2) modify, or (3) reject each position or "plank." Record the results of the vote.

4. Re-divide the class into small groups, and using the "planks" they have adopted, have each group create a presentation (a poster, display, speech, or campaign ad) that represents their position. Assemble all the groups' posters, displays, etc. to create a complete party platform.

5. Debrief the activity by having students compare their party platform to existing party platforms (Research the candidates").

• How is your platform similar to existing platforms? How is it different?
• Do candidates plan to address the issues you have chosen? How?
• In your opinion, which platform[s] are better? Which is the best? Why?

Once again, we’ve reached that point in the political calendar when major parties draft platforms and adopt them at their conventions. The Republicans passed their 2016 party platform by uncontested voice vote on the first night of their convention, and the Democrats will do the same this week.

Even if some Americans pay attention to a few prime-time addresses during the convention, few will read the roughly 50 pages of policy positions that each party publishes as their platforms. Platforms are a staple of party politics in the U.S. and elsewhere, but many see platforms as insignificant to our voting and electoral process.

Don’t let their lack of obvious purpose fool you.

My research on political interest groups and parties shows that platforms serve an important role in our politics not because they’re useful for persuading voters, but because they help party organizations build election-winning coalitions.

Platforms in other countries

Parties have been drafting platforms almost as long as there have been parties. In parliamentary democracies – such as those in the U.K., Canada, most of western Europe, Australia, India and elsewhere – parties are stronger organizations than they are in the U.S. In these systems, platforms tell voters what the parties stand for and candidates are bound to adhere to a party’s platform.

In American democracy, parties and candidates have no obligation to follow the platform. The modern American electoral system includes candidate-centered, as opposed to party-centered, campaigns for public office. U.S. candidates use party labels to tell voters where they stand, generally, on issues, but candidates face few consequences for bucking the party line.

So what purpose do American party platforms serve?

Platforms are for parties

In order to understand the role and value of party platforms, we need to understand exactly what American political parties are. Many Americans, about two-thirds of voters, hold a party identification such as Democrat or Republican. But the vast majority do not pay close attention to politics or how parties function.

Voters need parties because when voters have a sense of their own personal political attitudes, and a sense of the parties’ positions, voters can use candidates’ party labels to help them figure out who to vote for – even if they know nothing else about a candidate. Voters who hold a party identification are technically a part of the party, but they are not the people actively building the party.

Activists, pundits, organizers and interest groups pay close attention to politics and have a vested interest in the ideas and policy positions that are associated with a party. Some scholars have come to call this subset of a party the “intense policy demanders.” These people make up the central core of a party and determine what a party stands for and hopes to accomplish when they win an election.

But this subset of intense policy demanders is in constant flux. Parties are like organisms that feed on building successful coalitions to stay alive (i.e., win elections). There is a market-like process that helps determine which policy demanders get incorporated into each party in any given election cycle and which are left out. In our current election cycle we’ve been watching this play out in real time.

For example, free-trade and protectionist wings of the Republican Party have been jockeying to be a central component of the coalition. The party’s nominee, Donald Trump, takes a much stronger protectionist stance on trade than the party platform reflects, so the free-trade activists might call this a win.

Platforms play a critical role in helping the diverse coalitions of policy demanders negotiate whose interests are represented in the core party coalition. The platform is useful because it provides the coalition members, and wannabe members, something to bargain over. Without the document, the process of defining the values, policy intentions and members of a party would be even messier than it already is.

If we think of parties as extended networks, then the platform it adopts has an important institutional role to play it the process of producing this coalition.

A little to the left, a little to the right

In research I’ve done with Gina Yanitell Reinhardt, we found that in 2004, the Democratic Party heard testimony from 193 groups seeking to influence platform content in platform drafting hearings that spanned four cities over six months.

These groups try to draw the platform toward their political ideal, and some groups are highly persuasive. This explains why sometimes platforms include ideas that seem far from the party mainstream. For example, in 1996 the Republican platform included statements about abortion that were far to the right of candidate Bob Dole’s preference. The same thing happened in 2008 when John McCain was the GOP nominee and the platform was more pro-life than the candidate.

The 2016 Republican platform is far to the right on LGBTQ issues, which may not reflect the median of party. And this year, the Democratic platform adopted more progressive policies, including some in response to the the Black Lives Matter movement, and others pushed by Bernie Sanders.

There is strong evidence that parties are good at getting most policy elements of their platforms enacted.

Who gets more play?

My research with Reinhardt on the Democratic Party shows that they are most responsive to groups that are ideologically near the party median, and those that have shown great loyalty to the party. Groups that have many resources are no more or less likely to have their preferred positions included in the Democratic Party’s platform.

The party platform drafting process is a manifestation of a grand coordination dance between those jockeying to be part of a major party coalition. The platform is the thing over which all of these elements argue, bargain and compromise. Having something to bargain over helps these entities to coordinate. Without it, it would be hard to tell who was in and who was out.

Platforms may not mean much to the average voter, or even the average candidate, but they are important institutions that help our system of self-governance to organize.

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